I had a LOT of fun drawing this strip, especially that first panel. And I know Don had equal fun coloring it!
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Legend Of Bill
A fantasy comic for fans of everything from D&D to Warcraft!
OUR WORLDS
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© 2013 Th3rd World Studios. All Rights Reserved.
© 2013 Th3rd World Studios. All Rights Reserved.
Awesome! So much going on in the first panel alone! Fall leaves, Gnome swinging high above the dreaded Village O’ Smurfs, and Gypsie’s “Tribble-Pits” are no more – they must have burned off in the fire! Also, Bill found his sword – cool! The colors add such depth!
And I’m probably alone on this, but I actually liked Gypsie’s hair best “fried”… I dunno, it just kinda added to her edginess.
NO touchy da RUNES Bill!
Oh Bill pulled a Pixie. I like the shinys!
GNOME! Oh Guiles you sly boy you.
Smurf Village!
And is Gypsy tugging her skirt down in the last panel?
Little doors on the mushrooms?
Have they wandered into the Smurf Village again?
Holy Crap!!! I just spotted the two Smurfs peering out from behind the bush!
And that can’t be a Gnome home entrance hole in the background near Bill’s foot, can it? Not so close to the Smurfs!?!
Whaaaa?
@sylveran01 (and everyone else too) – Look closely, very closely, at the bushes in the background just to the right of Gypsy in the first panel, and you can just barely make out 2 of those pesky smurfs.
umm what happened to her pupil in the third frame?
Yay, the gypsy is looking much better with her hair back! ^^
Hmmm, runes, runes… Shall I assume that by using a method of prognostication that uses a medium that supposedly draws its power to predict the power from the gods, the gypsy hopes to get a picture of the future and/or explain what happened in a way that will prevent Vorik/Warrik from linking up with her again by not overtly exerting her own magical energies? Or maybe her magical battery is just dead and she wants to use something that doesn’t draw on her.
Swing gnome, sweet … *cough*
Anyway, can Vorik also latch onto inanimate magical objects such as the amulet with its little wireless telephonic enchantment? I mean since there’s (probably) no equivalent to a celltower or satellite, the little doohickeys must put out a helluva broadcast burst, and since DQ/Gina is wearing the reciprocating device I’d assume that ping was the thing that caught the attention of our would-be king.
Aaron, I am most impressed with your eyesight in catching the smurfs! I will run a blown-up view of panel 1 at 5:30pm EST – come back and check it out here in the blog!
Thanks gang – yeah, I was proud of the art and coloring in this one! (but then, I’m proud of all of ‘em)
Thanks for yoru patience on the strip – total motherboard meltdown on my laptop. Replacement desktop is up and running hot and heavy!
Love the insight on the tribble pits, runes and amulet!
Tribble-pits: Right you are. Burned clean off. lol
Runes: Methinks you have a KEEN insight into the strips, Rock.
Can Vorik latch onto and “eat” the magic of inanimate objects? Hm… this hasn’t been addressed directly, but it will be, and the probably answer is yes, to some degree. Trust me… you have not seen the last of Vorik, Warrix, or the remaining story of Vasheeva and Vorik’s downfall. And methinks Bill unwittingly (especially because he lacks wits) has a hand in all of it.
Well, we always knew Bill was on the road to rune.
@Eric – It’s kinda hard to see, but her lower lid is covering about 1/4 of her eye and the upper lid is covering the top half, leaving about 1/4 of her eye showing (sorry for all the math). Then when it got resized, things got all smoosherated (that’s a technical term)
.
is it just me, or is bill’s loincloth longer than the gypsy’s skirt? question: will our intrepid heroes run into gargamel, as well as the smurfs?
Gnomes and Smurfs and runes… Oh my!
@Hoomi: LOL!!
@todd – Would you want Bill’s loin cloth to be that short? I know I wouldn’t!
Even Gypsy’s headaches are cute!
I think the “burned off skirt” look works very well for Gypsie. And, Pixie, if she’s pulling down her skirt in the last panel, I trust she realizes that the only effect that has is to emphasize just how short it is. :O
Is it just me, or is that sword on Bill’s hip in the first panel new?
Kudos, Aaron! I’m usually good at spotting those things but until I read your comment, I had missed them
@djbeadle: It might be, as it doesn’t even show in the third panel…
Is it just me or is Bill getting more muscular?
Will no one comment on the Weird Cartoon Biology of Bill? Really, you folks aren’t seeing the forest for the trees…
1) BILL: NO SUNBURN.
2) BILL: NO SCRATCHES.
3) BILL: AMULET AND NECKLACE REPAIRED.
4) BILL: NO PALM SLAP.
5) BILL: HELMET ON, NO HEADACHE ON *HIS* PART.
These are enormous changes compared to the rest. Talk about magic. With that kind of recuperative power arrayed against him, Vorik would be well advised to hightail it out of there.
@Johanan – See, like I said in another post, cartoon charcters are very resilient and NEVER underestimate the healing power of Aloe!!
Okay, guys, I’m an idiot.
What does Gypsy mean when she says “runes”? I lifted this from Wikipedia:
Rune, from runa, the Proto-Norse word for “secret”, can refer to:
A letter from one of the historical runic alphabets
a number of unrelated historical alphabets sometimes referred to as “runes”:
“Turkic runes”
“Hungarian runes”
The unattested “Slavic runes”
Rune (given name) , a Scandinavian given name
Runic magic Runic divination
In popular culture
Guido von List’s Armanen runes
J. R. R. Tolkien’s Cirth script
RuneScape, an MMORPG developed by Jagex.
Rune (computer game), by Human Head Studios from 2000
Rune (film), by RUNE, LLC / ISIS Productions from 2006
Rune RK, a record producer and DJ from Denmark
Rune (comics), a comicbook villain
A version of Honda Goldwing motorcycles
In the movie Jungle Emperor Leo, the son of Leo’s (Kimba the White Lion grown up)
Led Zeppelin IV is sometimes called “Runes”
The name of a character, Hugo Rune in books by Robert Rankin.
Help!
I take the sight of the smurf village as a sign that we haven’t gone anywhere. It’s time to hit the road, jack!
@Johanan: Bill’s powers of regeneration are flighty at best. Don’t expect it to serve him when he will need it most. Like when Vasheeva finally catches up. Which you think she would have by now.
Samsonguy: Actually, Les Schtroumpfs are quite far reaching in this land… they have indeed traveled, but on that same note, they haven’t gotten very far! lol. But, that will change soooooon… they’re about to enter a village, and methinks certain people are closer than you think…
SAGG: (Someone should enter this info into the FORUM (or, the “Tome of the Age of Bill” lol) Runes: In the Legend of Bill universe, “runes” describe for me, speficially, rune STONES, the tradition (in the LoB universe, anyway) of casting stones with runic inscriptions on them that symbolize any number of varied things from healing, to fire, protection, to death, to god-like power or higher-magical intervention, and much more. “Runes” is Gypsy’s (and the gnomes if you cycle back to the last fo the 4 gnome strips recently) shortened term for rune stones. Incidentally, the act of using, keeping and producing actual real rune stones dates back as early as the Vikings. In the LoB universe, runes are used in tandum with each other (occassionally alone), either by chance (like you’d use a pair of dice), by casting over a blessed cloth, such as Gypsy’s slightly-burned head-dress or by the act of possessing and using a certain “formula” of runes in tandom with certain verbal spells to accomplish a greater magical outcome, or perhaps, in this case, the casting of a spell of protection from, oh, I don’t know, VORIK perhaps?
I base this on real runic fact to some degree (enhanced of course in my own derivative of it!) and you will see the use of runes more, so perhaps it’s good to have explained it, your question was great, and lovvvve it when everyone digs deep and wants to know certain further meaning in the strip! 
Gypsy needs to find some runes (she possesses none now, thanks to Bill and Frank) to enhance a greater magic than she can accomplish by spell alone.
Let it be told and recorded this day, the explaination of runic magic in the Age of Bill!
Huzzah!
Hope this helps, SAGG.
Don – you nailed it, bro! lol – Aloe – miracle-healer!
It sure does, David!
Thanks!
@Hoomi – *smeks* you one across the back of the head. Deliciously ‘orrible pun.
@general – I’m betting this is a smurf village, not the. Whole land is probably infested, possibly some plague brought on by the Dark One. Wouldn’t surprise me if they’re his minions, sprouting up like mushrooms anywhere he needs eyes.
@David – Can we keep Gypsy in a mini? For a while, at least ..? Maybe a furred mini for the cold climate? Thigh-high fur-rimmed boots to match? Maybe? Please?Please?? I know it’s a terrible burden having to draw her that way, but, y’know, for your fans ..? You’d throw yourself into that briar patch for us, right ..?
Speaking of Gypsy, I rather consider her slightly brighter than this. I mean, they just went toe-to-toe with THE Dark Underlord, probably the most powerful being in their world. OF COURSE, if anyone had a chance to see through her grammy’s spell, Warrix would be the one to be able to do it.
Now she wants to cast another seeing magic ….??!! Dang. That is one tough gal. A bit foolhardy, but that’s some kinda self-confidence. She knows by now that he feeds on magic. Even using them for protective purposes creates a well of magic from which he could drink.
As far as the Runes go, they are far more ancient than mere Vikings. There are several sets, especially Gaelic and Norse. But, having just returned from several years in Latvia, I can tell you there are more ancient versions; China, India/Sanskrit and even American (South & North) Indian.
Sadly, I’m no expert, but if I can googlefoo up some interesting links, I’ll post to the forum.
@don kuehn i was just thinking that she invented the mini skirt, now i have a whole other picture in mind……EEEEWWWWWWW!!! lmao!
didn’t bugs bunny explain cartoon physics?
@Todd – Yes, I do remember one episode where I believe that he was filling in for the Road Runner. In one scene he went over the cliff, Wile E. Coyote in pursuit, and Bugs just hung in the air. He then mentioned something about “being against the laws of gravity”, but that he never studied the law.
3X: i.e., Gypsy Mini: lol. Um, already a consideration. haha
todd: True!
Don: YES!
SAGG: WOOT!
(Short Sunday answers, lol. Okay, back to mOnday’s LoB now…)
3X – btw, loved the info in the FORUM, same with you Dongle (if you see this!)
Dana Andrews said prunes gave him the runes and passing them used lots of skills…
Sorry, had a song in my head.
Hmmmmm… I wonder what shiny doodad has caught Bill’s attention this time.
Also, OH NO, the Smurfs are here! RUN GNOME 12! RUN WHILE YOU STILL CAN!! Or at least watch what you’re doing.
@djbeadle- if you mean the sword that hasn’t been there at any point up until now(to my limited knowledge), then yes, I do believe that that is a new sword.
@todd- Newton’s laws have NO hold in the world of cartoons except for what the artist decides give it.
Fer fawk sake wouldja puhLEASE put a “last” button up there?
@Fijiman: Perhaps Bill thinks runes are shiny?
@Don: Hmm… I think the cartoon you’re thinking of was “High Diving Hare”, where, at the end, Yosemite Sam saws off the high-diving board (with Bugs tied on it), and the platform falls. Bugs then remarks that it’s against the laws of gravity, etc.
That might be the case, Insectoid, but we wont know until we are told.
Vasheeva and Vorik are due for a downfall?!? Spoiler alert! Or is that Spoiler notification?
…Spoiler notification alert? a jesh, I’m just going to sit in the back, and not get in anyone s way, with my second-hand Apron.
Would it be weirder if Bill, though a misunderstanding, said, “Ewwwww! [P]runes!”